In The Realm Of The Senses review: Disturbing, obsessive, unique

A remarkable film, revisited

In The Realm Of The Senses is based on real events - in the increasingly militaristic Japan of 1936, a married man, played by Tatsuya Fuji, and a geisha, Eiko Matsuda, retreat into their own hermetic world where they lose one another in love and death. The film was remarkable in its day, and is still remarkable, because Oshima`s actors really are making love on screen; many people called it pornographic, and as far as I know the only uncut screenings it had in Australia were those at the Melbourne and Sydney film festivals in 1977. But now you can see the uncut version, obviously R rated, of this controversial film, a disturbing, obsessive experience which, though obviously not for everybody, is a unique cinema experience.